Jack And The '
Album: Vacation (A Pop Manifesto)
Label: Folkwit
Tracks: 15
Website: http://folkwitrecords.bandcamp.com/album/vacation-a-pop-manifesto

Grammaticists take note - the apostrophe in Jack and The' is an integral part of the project named by Frenchman in exile in Edinburgh, Julien Lonchamp. Right, now that's cleared up, time to carry on being impressed by the breezy, harmony-driven, baroque 'n' roll of this charmingly chirpy missive.

Johnny the Storywriter paints the picture of down-by-the Seine jauntiness, Serge et Jane vocal cooings and ye-ye rhyming couplets. Naming a track Thelonius Monk & John Coltrane may be a bit obvious, but it wears its black turtleneck so well you can forgive it anything. The same goes for Fifties Dress, with its Pet Sounds outtake structure, Smile demo sound and Cat Stevens cleverness. The mood pervades the entire album with a dash of banjo here, a warm whistle there, Dean Friedman piano chords and John Shroeder arrangements.

The instrumentation is tellingly augmented by the Apostrophe Ensemble's clarinet, trombone, violin and cello as Lonchamp invokes the entire High Llamas oeuvre, The Divine Comedy, McCartney's first solo records and makes you wish Dennis Wilson had made more music on his own.

Be warned, Vacation will steal your heart… and you won't want it back.

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk